La force française Barkhane a « neutralisé » une dizaine de jihadistes liés à Al-Qaïda dans le nord du Mali, dont deux ont été faits prisonniers, a indiqué samedi l’état-major de l’armée, quelques jours après avoir annoncé d’autres pertes au sein des groupes jihadistes.
This Week’s Highlights
While European officials hope U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will soften America’s tone with traditional allies, senior Western officials in the U.S. capital are braced for an abrasive change when it comes to U.S.-Russia relations, the Financial Times reports. “We expect a massive toughening of the stance towards Russia,” a high-ranking Western diplomat in Washington told the Financial Times. “There is a hatred for Russia amongst [Biden’s team] that is really amazing. It’s not just rational; it’s also very emotional.”
Khaled Mishaal, former head of the political bureau of Hamas Movement, praised on Saturday Turkey’s role in supporting the Palestinian cause. He called on it to redouble efforts at the official and local levels to support all the occupied Palestinian territories in general, and Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and Gaza Strip in particular.
The French are unofficially planning to reduce their military presence in the African Sahel later this year. At the same time, Paris is to count on increased military assistance in its activities in the region from the armed forces of European partners.
In a call with President Putin, Assad has said that he hopes the upcoming refugee conference will be a success and that most refugees want to return writes SANA.
President Bashar al-Assad affirmed that the International Conference on Refugees’ Return, scheduled to be held in Damascus, is just the start of a solution to this humanitarian issue, indicating that the majority of refugees are willing to return to Syria.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was in Egypt Sunday hoping to ease tensions following the publishing of controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) that sparked ire in the Muslim world.
During the combing operations in the areas liberated by Syrian Arab Army from terrorism, the authorities concerned, in cooperation with citizens found large amounts of weapons and various ammo, some of which are western -made left behind by terrorists in the southern region.
People in Okinawa have expressed little hope that Joe Biden, elected Saturday as the next U.S. president, will review a controversial Japan-U.S. plan to relocate a key U.S. military base within the southernmost island prefecture.
As Asia comes to terms with the reality of a Joe Biden administration, relief and hopes of economic and environmental revival jostle with needling anxiety and fears of inattention.
From security to trade to climate change, a powerful U.S. reach extends to nearly every corner of the Asia-Pacific. In his four years in office, President Donald Trump shook the foundations of U.S. relations here as he courted traditional rivals and attacked allies with both frequency and relish.
Before 2015, Russia was a largely inconsequential actor in the Middle East – seemingly lacking the means or credibility to exert a meaningful influence on individual countries, let alone the region as a whole. However, everything changed when the Kremlin militarily intervened in Syria in September 2015 in an operation it claimed at the time was intended to combat terrorism. Russia’s intervention was launched in close coordination with Iran, at the express invitation of Damascus, and at a time when Bashar al-Assad’s regime was at the edge of implosion. Within a year, Russia had turned the tide of Syria’s crisis, creating conditions in which an initially subtle Western fatigue was becoming increasingly evident.